The Water Bearer
by Aurumsky
Summary: She would have stayed with Lucy, had there been an option.
This is my first fanfic I'm publishing, so I'm figuring out how this works in here.

Please feel free to review and point out any grammar mistakes should there be any.

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The days, Lucy mourned for Aquarius' loss, were growing far and between, but she still held onto the spirit with all she had. The pain was evident in her eyes, how her smile would be a little tighter and how she would, some nights, whisper it to the stars.

She still carried the broken key with her, on its usual place in her key pouch, always placing two of her fingers on it, whispering greetings and smiling gently.

It broke the Water Bearer's heart every time, and Aquarius would bite her lip, concentrate and push her emotions through the gate, and it never worked.

 _"A Celestial mage capable of holding three gates open, should be able to_

 _handle summoning the Spirit King."_

Should Aquarius answer did she hate Lucy more than love her, she would instantly say no. No, she had never hated Lucy, and never would.

Layla had undoubtedly been both a better mage and a better friend, but Lucy had carried her mother's beauty and heart, and Aquarius had grew on the girl.

 _"The summoner and the spirit must hold a deep bond to each others, trust_

 _each others unconditionally."_

The Water Bearer had hated Lucy after Layla had died. Lucy had no right to claim Aquarius' key as her own, or even look like Layla with how pathetic excuse of a mage she was.

But Lucy had grown, and at some point Aquarius realized, Layla was gone, and she had to put up with Lucy. Then it became accepting Lucy, admiring how she loved the Water Bearer despite all she said to her key holder.

Soon Aquarius realized, Lucy was the best fate the spirit could have gotten after Layla's death. Just as she fully realized how she really cared for Lucy, she was gone.

For full twenty eight days, Aquarius could do nothing but pace, snap at Leo and Capricorn and even Scorpio, and then she had cried tears of joy when Lucy's hand flinched, eyes fluttered and she smiled happily.

 _"Use my key, Lucy."_

Aquarius had watched over Lucy for years, she knew the mage better than Lucy probably knew herself.

'The sacrifice was necessary,' she still told herself. Merely four days, it was only four days, yet the moment the gate had closed, the void that had been filled by Lucy emptied again.

Permanently.

 _"I won't! I will not sacrifice any of my precious keys!"_

Scorpio told her that it would stop someday. Aquarius had asked when would be _someday_. He had not answered, because that day wouldn't come.

Lucy had left a mark, become a part of Aquarius, and now that was gone, and Aquarius hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to Lucy before it happened.

 _"Stop being such a naive brat!"_

 _"Do it, Lucy!"_

It had hurt.

The gate had closed itself, without her consent, and it hurt.

Her key, the one that used to be her acces to Earthland, had broken, and it had hurt. The key that used to be transfer the touch when Lucy held it, still did it, and it hurt.

The pain was more physical than Aquarius had thought it would be. She thought, she would shout a little, smile a little, cry a little, and it would be over.

No one had ever said that it would feel like her head was being ripped off of her body, or that someone was trying to mash her to pieces using thousands of needles repeatedly raining down on her.

What hurt the most, though, was losing Lucy.

 _"I myself am quite relieved. You're such a naive brat. You cry too easily. Not an ounce_

 _of the grace Layla had."_

Scorpio had took her in his arms the moment her gate closed, hid the tears she shed and drown the sobs and screams of pain with the gentlest words anyone had ever said to her.

He said that she was brave.

That she did well, that maybe she should have let Lucy know the one thing she had screamed to him before the gate closed, but he said that he was proud.

That he loved her. That Lucy loved her.

 _"I don't care! I love you!"_

Aquarius was not known for letting the things she loved go.

She had held on Scorpio for over four hundred years, and she had promised she would for four hundred more, and more, if nothing would tear them apart.

She had stayed by Layla's side for days until her death.

She had stayed with Anna until she just couldn't anymore, just couldn't.

She had planned on doing that to Lucy, too.

 _"Which is more important?! Your comrades? Your keys?! Guilt?!_

 _Do it, Lucy!"_

Aquarius had had Lucy's future perfectly planned for her.

Lucy would find herelf a man and she and Aquarius could talk about men and dates and all that stuff Aquarius had always wantaed to talk to Lucy about, she would marry to a man she loved from her bottom of her heart and because she wanted to, not because Jude said so. She would have a daughter that would annoyingly look like Lucy, and she would also be a Celestial mage so Aquarius could bitch to her when she grew up.

Aquarius would have been there when Lucy got married, exchanged the vows of love with her husband. She would have been there when Lucy's daughter was born, she would have been there when her daughter first summoned a spirit who would definitely be Plue, and she would have been there for Lucy's death. She would have held her hand as she lay on her bed, told her about what she and Scorpio had been up to, tell how her dear spirits were doing, because Lucy would, to her last breath, tell them to _smile_ , Aquarius would have maybe said that they weren't so sad, then she would cry.

And Lucy would ask, _why are you crying, Aquarius? Shouldn't you be happy, that you get finally rid of me?_ And she would smile, grin, even, _tell Moustaches that I said bye._

Aquarius would probably have smiled, tried, and then cried that Lucy can't die just yet.

That Lucy would stay just a little longer, that she wouldn't leave her like Layla did, that just one more day, a hour, a minute, _a second_ , and then Aquarius would be ready.

But she wouldn't be able to do any of those things now.

 _"I love you, Aquarius."_

Aquarius was well aware that she hadn't said it to Lucy.

That she loved her back, that she would stay if she just told her to, that she alone was enough to save Lucy.

But she couldn't, she wasn't.

If there would have been an option, Aquarius would have never, ever sacrificed herself. A selfish part of her, that part that kept her from getting too close, had now wanted to throw the guild aside. She would have pulled Lucy to the spirit world if she was allowed to.

Kept her there, safe.

Aquarius then blamed Leo for not being enough, she snapped at Virgo for not going to Lucy fast enough. She stopped, though, as the pain they held in their eyes was too much like hers.

The Spirit King had offered his condolences.

She had said he knew nothing.

She had cried, that give her a new key, make her key work, give her _one_ _more_ chance, let her start over, meet Lucy for even a minute.

 _"Open, gate of the Spirit King!"_

She had begged, that please, please _please_ , don't take me away from my baby.

 _"Why does it **hurt** so much, Aquarius?"_


End file.
